The Effects of Distance Education supported by WebCT

Abstract

We offered 7 courses in the form of distance education from 1999 to 2007 at the Faculty of Economics in Hiroshima University. They were initially designed as face-to-face courses at Higashi-hiroshima campus, and offered to Higashi-senda campus about 20 miles apart via bidirectional distance education system. Our biggest problems in 1999 were high ratio of dropout and low level of academic attainment of the students. Therefore, we introduced WebCT as a supplement to our on-campus lectures in 2002. After applying WebCT, the ratio of dropout students declined sharply and the grades showed outstanding improvement. The improvement of educational effectiveness was more in distance education than in face-to-face lectures. This paper summarizes the effects of applying WebCT, especially on the distance education.